Meet Your Neighbor

By Holly Willdrick/The Quill

Meet your neighbor Jesse Forquer, a 1998 graduate of LaHarpe High School. Jesse enlisted in the Army in 1997 and attended basic training that summer. After his high school graduation, he went to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for job training for 10 weeks.

He returned home and was an active reserve member until he was deployed on October 23,2004.

Jesse was a Sergeant over the Section Chief Howitzer Crew in the field artillery unit and was assigned to a personal security duty guarding other high rank army officials. The hardest part about being away was not getting to see his son Mason, now five.

He was able to call and e-mail every other day and was also given three weeks leave before returning home on December 18, 2005.

"I would do it all over again. My time in Iraq has given me a different outlook on life and has also made me a stronger person," he said.

Jesse is still an active member of the Army Reserve and serves one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. He plans to serve for 11 more years and then be able to retire.

He is currently employed by N & J Transport delivering goods for Menards.

He is the son of the late Jim Cecil and Denette McCombs and an older brother to Tara (Forquer) Benaka, Nikki Cecil, and DJ Cecil.